Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of HAPiness
by purple.bookworm.girl
Summary: After Erika tells Henry she's pregnant, she still has to return home to England, and Henry isn't sure he can deal with that.


_**A/N: So yeah. I told you all I was going to do tags for every Sanctuary ep this season...and then I sort of died. But I am going to do it now, so even though this ep is from October, here you go! Tag to Untouchable, season 4 episode 3.**_

_**DISCLAIMER: I own nothing except a tumblr that is quite stuffed of Amanda's face.  
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Henry can't bring himself to get out of bed. It is warm, and comfortable, and he doesn't get to do this very often: sleep with his arms wrapped around his girlfriend. His Erika. But today, as soon as he gets out of bed, it will all be over, because she is heading home, back to England, and he is going to stay home, in Old City, at the Sanctuary, where he's lived for nearly as long as he can remember.

He loves it. But he loves her as well, and now – now – he loves the baby growing inside her. It's been causing some problems, but Magnus has fixed it – she always knows how. Everything will be okay, because they will always have Magnus to fix things.

A murmur comes from the dark-haired woman who sleeps beside him, and he casts his eyes down to her peacefully sleeping face. But her eyes slowly open, long lashes dragging beautifully along her cheeks, and he readies an apology for waking her up. Before he can get the words out, however, she has covered his mouth with her own and given him even more of a reason to avoid removing himself from the comfortable warmth of their shared bed.

~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~

Later that morning, after a forced extrication from the bed by an annoyed Will banging on the door, the two are alone again as they make their way towards the airport for Erika to catch her flight home. Erika lays her hand on top of Henry's on the gearshift, lacing her fingers between his. He glances over at her for a quick moment, a grin lighting up his whole face.

But her face is not smiling back: in fact, she looks downright depressed. Henry's smile fades quickly, and he flips his hand over to grasp hers more securely.

"What's wrong?" he asks, concern filling his voice. She shakes her head, but he is persistent, and finally she answers, the sound of unshed tears breaking her voice.

"What if something else goes awry, when I'm back in England, and Magnus can't help me? What if something happens to the baby, and you're not there? What if…" she trails off, but her worry fills the space between them as surely as if it were voiced. Henry's heart breaks for his girlfriend, and he pulls off at the next exit and parks for a moment in the back of a department store parking lot. Turning to face Erika, he takes both her hands in his.

"Everything is going to be all right," he says decidedly, peering directly into her eyes as he says this, trying to exude confidence and security. "Magnus knows what she's doing, and I trust her. I promise you, everything is okay."

Erika nods, but she does not look convinced. Her eyes wander over the city beyond his window until he squeezes her hand to return her focus.

"Would you like me to go back to England with you?" he asks. Her eyes widen in shock and she immediately shakes her head, but he squeezes her hand again, more strongly this time. "Hear me out. If I went with you, I'd be there no matter what happened. I can nearly always get ahold of Magnus, and I can make sure nothing happens to you. How does that sound?"

All Erika does is shake her head more forcefully. "I can't do that to you, Henry, the Sanctuary is your home," she tells him, squeezing his hand in turn. "I'm just nervous about this baby, and I miss you when we're an ocean apart, and I feel safe with Magnus nearby. But right now we're still meant to be apart. I have to figure out who I am without Aunt Lillian's rules, and I know you know that you are right where you want to be, but I can't live in a place like the Sanctuary just yet. I have to go, and you have to stay." She leans forward and plants a kiss on his lips, and he pulls her close into a hug.

"I love you," he whispers into her hair. She murmurs the same against his chest, her voice stronger and free of her unshed tears. They pull back onto the highway, fingers tangled over the gearshift once again.

Finally at the airport, they both wait in line until Erika is able to check in and receive her boarding pass. Stepping onto the escalator to the security checkpoint, she wraps her arms around Henry's waist and leans her head on his shoulder, just until they reach the end of the escalator. A last kiss, a hand squeeze, and she steps into line, showing the guards her passport and boarding pass, pulling off her shoes and stowing them and her shoulder bag in a plastic crate to push through the x-ray machine. She squares her shoulders and steps through the metal detector, collects her things on the other side, and turns back to look at Henry, still waiting by the escalator. She waves (he returns it), blows a kiss (he pulls a completely cheesy act and 'catches' it, placing his hand over his cheek, which elicits a laugh from the beautiful woman on the other side of the checkpoint), and eventually turns away, sliding around the corner so seamlessly it is as if she were never there.

And suddenly Henry wants to HAP, overthrow the checkpoint, and run over to get her. He can't believe he just _let_ her go, this woman he loves, this woman who is carrying his child. It is an almost physical pain in his chest, the longing. He has never missed someone so much, not even Erika when she's left before. But now it's all different.

He isn't sure how he gets back down the escalator, out the door, and back into the car, but somehow he does, and he leans onto the steering wheel, tears running down his face unchecked.

A familiar "ding" goes off in his pocket, and he pulls out his cell phone, the text message icon open on the screen. He unlocks the phone, wiping his tears away with his sleeve and staring at the message with bleary eyes. A new burst of tears nearly escapes as he reads.

_I love you, Henry,_ it reads. _I love you so much. But this is right, and we know it. I will see you soon, I promise. Don't stop living life for me!_

He loves her so, so much. She knows him so well. Again, he's thinking about going and jumping the checkpoint just to catch one last glimpse of his dark-haired girlfriend.

His phone dings again, and he pulls up the new message. Magnus' number. Confused, as the Doc almost never texts, he rubs his eyes furiously before reading.

_Need you back, something's screwed up_, reads this one. He laughs, a bark of a sound that shocks him into turning the key and backing out of the parking space. It's so obviously from Will, sent from the nearest phone he could grab, that he knows again where he belongs. He may love his girlfriend, he may not know exactly what's coming for them in the future, but right now he knows that he will head back to the Sanctuary, he will fix whatever has broken, he will slip back into the rhythm of the life he knows. And someday, someday soon he hopes, Erika will feel comfortable in that same rhythm.


End file.
